We reap what we sew: perpetuating biblical illiteracy in new English Religious Studies exams and the proof text binary question

ABSTRACT

This article draws on three sources of evidence that together indicate hermeneutical weaknesses in exam courses on Christianity in English Religious Education (RE). It scrutinises a single exam paper and an associated text book from a recent authorised course. It conceptually explores features of a new style of long Religious Studies (RS) exam question that is commonly set for the majority of students studying for a RS qualification at 15–16 years old. It combines these documentary sources with a focus group interview of teachers in the first year of teaching the new GCSE Religious Studies. The findings from the document analysis, conceptual analysis and focus group interview, together concur that there is a problem related to the use of fragmentary texts and the promotion of a particularly propositional conception of religion. These features are structured in by systemic elements. A small proportion of students follow text-based GCSE routes include a more detailed study of Biblical texts but the majority of 15–16-year-old students do not and so are exposed to this problem. These weaknesses could be ‘designed out’ of exams with smarter questions and mitigated against by curriculum content that specified the study of how texts are interpreted, as well as teacher expertise in the teaching and practise of hermeneutics.

KEYWORDS:

• Bible
• Christianity
• hermeneutics
• exams
• proof-text
• binary questions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert A. Bowie

Robert A. Bowie (PhD) is Director of the National Institute of Christian Education Research and was Chair of the Association of University Lecturers in Religion and Education 2015–2018. He researches Christian education and religious education.

Richard Coles

Richard Coles is Head of Religious Studies & Computer Science in Park School, Yeovil.